Race & Equity

Racial stress is more than a feeling. It's a threat to physical health.

At the latest TEDMED conference, Penn GSE's Howard Stevenson explained how "centuries of racial discrimination, dehumanization, and illness" come to threaten the lives of people of color. Stevenson, a clinical psychologist and director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative, offered a path forward built on racial literacy.

Stories help kids understand who they are and who they can be. Thomas highlights stories that deal with issues like gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and socioeconomic class in ways that are real and empathetic, so all students can better understand our diverse world.

In 2017, Angie Thomas’s Southern #BlackLivesMatter novel The Hate UGive topped the New York Times Young Adult Best Seller list for 38 weeks — and offered an authentic representation of teens of color that is rarely seen in children’s literature.

In 2016, after the NAACP passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools, the organization began a nationwide listening tour to hear from people on all sides of the debate.

Cornell Brooks, who was then president of the NAACP, attended meetings across the country.

Faculty Expert

Confronting racism can be hard. That’s true if it’s the explicit racism seen in white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville this month or more implicit institutional racism that exists in everyday life. Because it’s hard, we have to practice, according to Penn GSE’s Howard Stevenson.